BY JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 9 



Still we have no evidence of a microbe in wolibles, and so 

 the only possibility is to look at them as idiopathic spinal 

 Meningitis caused by the circmnstances in which tlie cattle live. 

 Bad food, or poisonous food could deteriorate the constitution of 

 the animal, and its high disposition for Meningitis spinalis 

 might then bring the disease on. As the wobbles are very pre- 

 valent in Western Australia the first investigations have been 

 undertaken there. A very able series of experiments has been 

 conducted by Mr. H. H. Edwards, Government Veterinary 

 Surgeon, and the results published in the Agricnlrural Journal 

 ■of Western Australia in 1894. 



Nothing else is put down there as the cause of the Wobbles 

 than the poisonous effect of Macrozamia leaves eaten by the 

 cattle. Edwards could produce the Wobbles fit any time by 

 feeding the penned cattle with chaffed jMacrozamia leaves and 

 the degree of the disease was in straight proportion to the 

 amount of ]\Iacrozamia given and to the time taken by the 

 experiment. 



There are only two objections to ]\Ir. Edwards' skillful 

 investigations. 



(1) That no poisonous body was found in Miu-vozamia leaves 



up to the date of his experiments. 



(2) That in my opinion there exists no organic poison which 



is likely to produce spinal ]\Ieningitis with serous 

 infusion. 



To elucidate these two points I started my investigations 

 three years ago with the following results : — 



The ]\Iacrozamia leaves, especially those of Macrozamia 

 spiralis, contain at certain times of the year a considerable 

 amount of a poisonous resin, insoluble in cold water, slightly 

 soluble in hot water and alcohol, and very soluble in ether, by 

 means of which it can be shaken out of a Avarm watery infusion. 

 All efforts to obtain this resinous principle in a crystallized 

 form have been hitherto unsuccessful, and microsublimation 

 gave only the products of dry distillation. Therefore, no 

 •elementary analysis was tried, as all available poison has been 

 used for experiments on small animals and cattle, to be men- 



